Population Growth

March 28, 2016

To the Editor:

I was both shocked and disappointed when Edward O. Wilson, whom I have always greatly admired, held back when addressing the key component in the destruction of biodiversity: human population growth (“The Global Solution to Extinction,” Sunday Review, March 13).

To suggest that 50 percent of the earth’s land and sea could be set aside with a human population projection of 10 billion-plus,with its concomitant demand on natural resources, is naïve if not ludicrous.

When I was born in 1939, the world’s population was about 2.2 billion; today, it exceeds 7.3 billion and is steadily increasing. During my 76 years, more than a third of the birds on the planet have vanished, and we all know what has happened to the world’s fish stocks.

Can anyone truly believe that an additional three billion people will have any less of a harmful effect on all species?